​
Strong and stable into ruin
School-kids on the hunt for lunch
Cut the apron strings.
Least it keeps the bastards lean
And gets the scroungers off the couch.

Murdoch headlines; leeches for the letting of our bloodlust.
Blame it on the migrants suffocating in containers
Blame it on the muslims
Or whichever current favourite takes the weight of our collective rage
And keeps the nation safe.

Privatise and privatise in private, let the nurses burn
Along with every other resident who voices their concern
And yes divide the country
Into will they never learn
And will they never stop
Then bring the army out to guard us.
Saying those sick-hearted martyrs will not test our liberal values
Locked in the panopticon, we’re volatile and fragile.

Such stability.

Suicide’s increaseing
More rough sleepers
Ugly words in public places,
Fear and doubt
And all the racists have come out to show their faces.
Under May there is a gulf that separates
And seems to gape a little wider every day.
Now watch her prey on every tragedy.
Divide divide and frenzy up the nastiness,
The them and us,
The human cost
The heightened threat, we must be watched
Clocked and marked and kept and blocked.
If this is strength then we’re all fucked.
But give them an inch and they’ll set up shop.

I want to create a really hostile environment
Her words, not mine.

Poem by Kate Tempest written for MAY NOT exhibition

THE SHOW! MAY NOT

A banging exhibition by political artist duo kennardphillipps is being staged at Dadiani Fine Art on the eve of the general election. May Not is a raw visual response to the snap election by Cat Phillipps and Peter Kennard, who create photomontages that analyse war, free speech and the corruption of power.

MAY NOT features an installation of photomontages printed on The Financial Times and blank newsprint, propped up by a three-dimensional red graph which snakes throughout the gallery, spiking up to the ceiling, and extending financial market figures into a physical manifestation. The artists take hold of this graph and connect it directly to images that focus on the real-world impact of financial powerbrokers and the political elite.

One of the images features a grinning Nigel Farage, clutching a pint, emerging from Theresa May’s head, suggesting that the Tories have absorbed UKIP while another suggests the Prime Minister has reduced the NHS to rubble. In another image, the dispossessed are gathered outside the door of 10 Downing Street.

“MAY NOT is a powerful immersive experience, comprised of photomontages addressing current political upheaval and oppression.” Eleesa Dadiani